Hello! My name is Nick, and I'm the founder of the ministry of Life Without Limbs.
I don't know where you're watching from today, but I'm sure you've heard of something that,
you know, is causing me to wash my hands like never-before: Coronavirus.
It seems as though the entire world is reeling from this pandemic, and I just want to tell you, first of all,
that I love you, and I want to ask you, “How are you doing?”
Now, I'm worried about people lately, because, obviously, it feels sometimes a little overwhelming.
It's very hard to imagine a life after this dust storm—a storm and kind of chaos that feels like you don't know
which way is up, which way you should be going. How should we be thinking?
Sometimes when we talk about our friends, you have someone saying this, and you have someone saying that.
And then you watch the news, and you kind of don't know what to believe sometimes.
Well, first of all, I want to tell you, please listen to your local authorities,
and, sure, do measurable steps to make sure that you and your family keep safe. As much as we can, we need to do what we can,
but at the same time, I want to talk about our heart and our mind,
and I want you to know that I, being born without limbs, have faced some challenges in life,
and some fears--some uncertainties that no one really could tell me what the future could look like,
and I kind of had to just take one day at a time, but I want you to know that I am wanting to be someone
who could just encourage you in this time of need, in this time of fear.
You know that there are fears of rational and irrational levels, and when my parents saw me for the first time,
they had rational thoughts. "Well, is my son going to be able to walk?
"Is my son going to be able to go to school?"
"Is my son ever going to have a family and a good quality life?"
And ready or not, I came into this world, and all they could do was do their best, then trust God in the rest.
But what they also had to really tackle were the irrational fears,
saying conclusive thoughts in our conscious or even subconscious levels.
For me, even saying, “I'm never going to get married. Oh, he's going to be alone for the rest of his life."
"He's never going to be able to do this, this, and this.” And with time and with faith you can overcome fear
with confidence in being able to see past what you feel, seeing past what we know,
and not being debilitated by what we don't know. Taking one day at a time is something that my parents always said.
"Be thankful for what we have and keep on going, one step at a time."
You know, it's times like these where we're not distracted by what's going on at school or at work,
or this and this and this didn't really work out. Now we have time together to really be thankful
for what we do have that's most important, which is faith, family, and friends,
and really reflecting on the bigger question of life.
“Who am I?" "Why am I here?"
"What's the greater purpose that we really have in our life?”
and for me that was one of the discovering journeys I had to start.
jAnd I just want to first of all share a story.
I don't know if you've seen me on YouTube, but I was swimming in a Sydney beach in Australia.
I now live in California, but at that time we were always close to a beach,
and wherever we went, we always wanted to go and put my feet in the sand.
And I loved, you know, digging up the sand with my little foot and jumping over waves as I could,
but there was this one time where I was in my friend’s arms, and we were not on the shore.
We were in quite a bit, and they call me “Bob” when I swim because I can kind of just "bob" there.
With the proportion of body mass and air lung capacity--as long as I hold my breath, I actually float!
So if you see me swimming--don't make me laugh—because I'm going to start sinking!
But one day I was in my friend’s arms, and this rogue wave came.
I mean, we both looked at it. and I'm like—oh, I mean my palms are sweaty, my knees were shaking,
and we looked at each other like, “Oh no!” And all of a sudden this wave came Vrrrrrooom, like
a slippery football out of someone's hands. Out Nick went, and they couldn't see me, and
I was like, “Whoa!” I was like in a washing machine! I was like
going ahead of it here alright, and going around in spinning circles. I was getting
dizzy automatically, like this a pound of sand--it felt went up my nose, and I got really
scared and really frightened, and I'm like, “Okay. It's okay. I float. Right? I'm
Bob, and if I could just hold my breath, it's going to be okay.”
And so I'm holding my breath, holding my breath. I'm like, “Whoa, this is taking a long time!”
You know some of those rips that just keep you just below the surface? It felt like I
was there, but I had my eyes were shut. I didn't know what was going on, and then I slowly
came up to the surface, and I'm like relieved as I'm coming up because now I can take a breath.
But guess what? I found myself with my shirt
over my face, and it was a type of material that when it's wet you can't breathe through
it, and I don't have hands to just take that shirt off me, so I come up, and I'm like
“I can't breathe!” And I'm now wondering, tuning into my ears, like, “Are they going to find
me? Are they going to see me?” It's like I can like wave and say, “Hey!”
I came up silent, couldn't take a breath in, and I hear my friend screaming, “Hey, where's Nick?”
And someone else said, “I thought you had him,
and all of a sudden--wrrroooom--another wave came. I couldn't take another breath. Now I'm in
panic mode. I'm like, “Wait a second,” “I don't want to die like this! This is not my time,
but I knew that if I panicked I would let go of my breath and that could
be the end. I had to hold onto what I knew was true to keep calm. Hold on and hold on
to what I know is true--that if I could just stand still and hold my breath, I'll eventually
come up, and I eventually did, and my friends grab me, pulled my shirt down, and we didn't
swim for the rest of the day. I was shaken up, and in the spiritual sense,
what happened to me physically is something that I feel we all go through in our stressful situations.
We don't know what's up, what's going down, what's...
How am I going to get through this? My question to you is when you're in a stressful
situation, who do you turn to for comfort? Is it your friends? What if they're caught
in the same stressful situation? What if they're actually looking to you for strength, and
you don't know where you're getting your strength from? Even more seriously when we look at
not just the world and day-to-day life, we must understand that physically, that's one
realm of our existence, but we also have a soul and a spirit and mind. We know that death
is real. I'm not saying that we're all going to die from this coronavirus situation.
What we must understand is, first of all, yes, we can pray for those who are sick.
We can pray that we do everything we can in this situation, but even if it's a worst-case scenario--for
me, I understand that this life is temporary. All these things: money, temporary pleasures
of going around the world, enjoying it, or almost what we've been going to in our daily
life—money, drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, fame, and fortune—if you put your happiness
in temporary things, your happiness will be temporary.
My hope is not in what this world can give me. My hope is knowing that I'm going to live
forever, that I have the power of being raised from even death itself, that during my struggles
and my time of suffering that the person who I turned to his God, and not just as an idea
or religion or philosophy of life, but to know that God is my friend, that I have the
Bible to hold onto His promises, that I can pray to Him, that He is my real comfort.
I want to ask you, “Do you want that comfort and protection
of knowing that the Creator of the Universe who knows all things, whose certain of the future,
who knows what's going on in your heart. He loves you! He's going to carry you
when you cannot walk. Will you turn to Him today?—because I want to tell you that the
greatest freedom of all is not a cure for this disease called coronavirus. It's freedom!
It’s freedom from the fear of death itself. It's freedom in knowing that, yes, sure we
will do our best, but trust God in the rest that He can do miracles. This will pass.
This will be something that we look back on. But if it's not coronavirus, it'll be something
else in the future, and I want to ask you, "If this is our last day today, will you wake up in heaven?"
because I know I will, and today in this posture of our heart being humbled,
and saying, “Okay, God, I can't do this on my own.
I can't put my security in what I used to put security in. I need You. Come into my life.
Forgive me of my sin. Help me to know You. I want Your plan. I want Your strength, not mine.
Help me to know You today. I actually want to lead you in a prayer that
says that to Him right now. Wherever you're at right now, invite Him into your heart.
Let's pray right now. “God, first I come before You, and we humble
our hearts, and, Lord, I pray for my friend watching right now. You know our depression,
our anxiety. You know our fear. You know the difficulty we have when stress and panic and
anxiety come. And loneliness and isolation is something we all experience sometimes,
whether it's having no arms and legs or having something--a physical ailment, or even
just the fear and panic of what could happen. Lord, we thank You that no matter what disabilities
we have in our hearts that you want to rescue us. You want to comfort us. You still have
a good plan, hope, and future for us all. Thank you, God, that as we can trust
in You that we are all citizens of heaven passing through, and no matter what we go
through in this life, You will carry us when we cannot walk, and You will restore our soul.
Fill our spirit in our hearts and minds with your peace, with your comfort, holding onto
Your promise to know that You're with us. You're never going to leave us or forsake
us, and God, I ask that you would bless right now, my friend watching, who's praying with
me right now. Bless them. Bless their family comfort us strengthen us we pray for miracles,
in Jesus name. But Lord, we thank you that the greatest miracle
of all is knowing You, and right now, my friend, from where you're at, would you repeat this
prayer after me—a prayer that starts your journey, your faith journey with Jesus?
Repeat after me. Say, “Dear God, I come to You today, and I thank You for loving me.
I confess that I'm a sinner, and I'll never be perfect, but today I ask You
to please be my Lord and Savior. I want to know You. I want to live out the plans You
have and not my plan today, and from this day on. I want Your strength and comfort and
hope each and every day. Forgive me, God, for all of my sins. I do not want to sin.
I want to know You. Fill me with your Holy Spirit, Your peace, Your comfort,
and Your joy. Teach me how to pray. Show me how to hold onto your promises in the Bible, and
give me faith every day. And You'll never leave me, and You'll never let me go through
more than I can handle. Help me, God, today, every day. I want to know You more. I need
You. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.” “Friend, I just want to tell you I'm so
thankful that if you did say that prayer sincerely, the Bible says that anyone who says sorry
for this and repents and turns away from those sins, God forgives every single sin of ours,
and that we're free. I want you to know that I am free with or without arms and legs. rich
or poor coronavirus or not. I'm free, and I have everything I need because of my faith
in Jesus. So welcome into the family of God! As you
have now started this journey of faith we want to help you. In fact, we want to give
you videos from me to you if you now click on that link and provide your email, you're
going to receive videos that you cannot find on the Internet. We want to help you now with
the next steps because even after this encouraging message, and even after this prayer, it's
not the end. It's the beginning. I daily pray with God and talk to Him. I daily read my
Bible because I know it's not about just going to a church. It's about knowing God and Jesus
as my friend, so please get to know Him. So please keep on going in this journey one day
at a time, and I hope to hear from you, so please keep seeking God one day at a time.
Know that He's with you. Click on that link. Give us your email, and I hope that the videos
from me will encourage you daily here on out.